Are Measurements of Intellectual Ability and Achievement Inherently Racist?

This passage in Tom Hafer and Henry I. Miller’s piece in City Journal on their disappointment with their alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, caught my eye. It is, in effect, their manifesto:

First, facts are not racist, and stating facts is not racism. Second, a person’s ethnicity or skin color does not define him or her as a racist, oppressor, or victim. Third, intellectual ability and achievement are the principal requirements for admission as a student or faculty member to any university. Fourth, diversity of opinions is desired and supported. Fifth, a just, democratic society requires equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal responsibility; it does not require equal outcomes. And finally, adherence to the statements above must not be sacrificed for political, social, or public relations considerations.

These truths used to be self-evident; now they are apparently controversial. MIT and other universities must make a choice: Will they redeem themselves by standing for merit and truth, or will they forfeit the support of countless alumni and donors by surrendering to wokeness?

I cannot actually speak for the “woke” but I would venture a guess that they would contend that any measurement of intellectual ability and achievement that does not produce equal outcomes among different races is inherently racist. Said another way I think that Mssrs. Hafer and Miller’s admonition will fall on deaf ears.